#surely its far too long to trend

[hannahchronism]

i saw. an edit on tiktok (yeah i know) of someone who had compiled a bunch of pictures they took when they started to feel like the thing they were doing wasn't real and that sort of. boxed me into acknowledging that that should probably be. the minority feeling. if it happens at all.

#smth smth christian household. smth smth father from very.... #oh my mom said it the other day and it was such a good word for it but now i've lot it. #hmm anyway his father was army and not particularly. hm. not Not demonstrative but didn't Say things #father from very 'my dad was army and his dad was army' family #mother has image-focused gaslighter whose favorite child was the boy for a mother #(and her dad died when i was very little) #((and then actually dad's dad died when i was a little older but still. quite little.)) #(((((that's a fun trend we have. there's more to it but that's . anyway.)))) #this is a very circumventive way of getting do ''my god do i know how to not talk or address or look at things'' #jordan's family freaks me out they all yell at each other about stuff and it's like. that's not allowed ;slkfjgs;dlkfjg #like that sound derogatory i really don't mean it to be and im sure there's a whole list of pros and cons for that one too it's just like #god it's So Different. it's so different. we don't yell until someone has like. Snapped. usually over something little #this has steered in a way that one wonders how the things are related but i swear they are #the ultimate point meant to be ''god i wish i knew how to talk'' which actually i guess isn't that it's really more like #god i wish i trusted myself to know how to talk because i do i worked very very very hard to be able to but im always afraid to do it anywa #it's so much easier to never say anything if you are willing to accept the cost of that #and if you have been doing it for a very long time its very hard to remember whether or not you are and how to hold on to not accepting it #which is mainly. rooted in self trust #im having a time. im trying very hard i know it does not look or sound like it. #and if you are down here this far please understand i don't think. that i want eye contact over the top of this post #i am very good at looking away. i am very good at (& used to) being invisible. being looked at is very scary. #i really almost don't like it very much at all but if you could sit with me without looking that would be. really very cool #but that is much harder online #hmmmmmmmmmm starting to feel very visible in fact right now but i've been posting on this blog for years since like the peak of disaster #why stop now

[ew-selfish-art]

DPx DC AU: Danny learns that he can change his summoning ritual and decides to go chaos mode with it i.e. A viral tiktok trend.

Danny ascends the throne and it's honestly pretty alright as far as new jobs go. He states a few opinions, makes sure no one goes to war and is slowly integrating a community service sentence to Walker's prison. It's not a bad gig, and considering the troves of gold he's now owner of, it doesn't pay too shabby either.

His main problem with the job isn't even his constituents (he likes to think they would vote for him over pariah), it's all these loony death cults! They keep summoning him with Pariah's old cold sign and it's driving him insane- After a very unhelpful smirk by CW, a long study session in GW's library and some help from Ember (she knows drama like no one else) Danny finally has a new summoning ritual.

Of course he swapped out the blood and bone for like, sour gummies and random shit he had in his backpack at the time. A TI-84. And yes, the Latin chant is that one super-fast bit of Rap God preformed to a BTS dance at speed.

But rather than keep this to himself, he gets Sam (who has a thriving plant and protest community following) to record her completing this ritual and Danny being summoned. Why? Cause it was a very specific to Sam skill that they didn't know if people could replicate and it gives Danny some plausible deniability that he tried to make it difficult when CW asks.

Posting it makes it very quickly go viral as people attempt to call it fraudulent but sure enough, Danny is now traveling the world at a moments notice.

Which is great cause it's summer and he's bored in Amity anyway (He's going to change it before he starts university in September, duh), and its even better because the second a lame ass death cult brings him forward to, like, destroy the planet, a slumber party or influencer has already summoned him away. Shit, he even met a few celebrities this way! Plus, turns out that most death cultists aren't able to rap!

Reality hit him pretty hard when he got summoned to an office space that is clearly a base of operations and the summoning spell locked him in. Literally, he has no idea how to get out of this binding spell- Danny definitely hadn't realized that was an option. Taking in the Justice League members in front of him, plus one trench coated menace, Danny groaned for a moment before thinking to ask:

"Wait- Which one of you was able to do Rap God? And the dance? Please tell me someone thought to film that!!"

#dcxdp #dpxdc #danny phantom #dc x dp #dp x dc #dc crossover #dp crossover #summoning au #ghost king danny au #Danny: Fine instead of waiting to be summoned at random ill just be summoned all the time everywhere #Danny: I will go zero to one hundred because fuck it we ball #Sam is very talented in this and i will not explain #pick ur fave hero for the performance lmao but you lose points if you pick a side kick/ younger hero #also thinking about this as the john constantine method like going from a whole soul to sooo many pieces #Danny denies starting the viral trend when they interrogate him but he doesnt deny preferring this to boredom

[princessofangiemania]

You have been chosen

Remember, though Law of Assumption and Reality Shifting went trending on multiple social media platforms, not everyone chose to believe in it. Not everyone chose to accept that power. The power to be able to create your reality. To bend it to your will. To be able to visit worlds beyond our own. Some ignored it, some ridiculed it and its believers, some cast it off as childish and moved on. But you are here today. We are here today. You had the open mind and a powerful one to boot. A powerful mind enough to be able to wrap your mind around the fact that you can create anything you want, have anything you want, and go to worlds we have long thought to be fictional.

People were given a choice. But only a few stayed. Worried that manifesting and reality shifting isn't for you? Think about it. Think about what I said for a moment. I too struggled with this. I was in the Reality shifting community before I got into the LOA community. I asked myself, "What if reality shifting isn't for me?"

But I would always think back to the time I told a friend about shifting and manifesting. She thought it was ridiculous, childish and foolish. But instead of being demotivated, it was the opposite. I gave her the power but she refused it. But we, my lovelies, we're here today.

You were chosen to wield this power, to be able to create the life you want. You were offered the fast pass to your dream life. Not everyone can wrap their heads around the fact that magic exists, that manifesting actually works, that visiting other worlds is real. Too hung up on what society always told us. Too hung up on logic. Sure logic does make sense but how far can it take you? Embrace your power and know that magic lives inside of you.

#manifestation #manifesting #law of assumption #loassumption #self concept #manifest #manifesation #reality shifting

[isaksbestpillow]

Hello Siiri! First off: I just yelled in delight that you're offering subs on Ossan's Love Returns -- thank you! I have not watched the previous series or OL movie, but I come to you after learning that EarthMix will cameo in this week's episode. I'm watching older Thai BLs to learn more about that nation's genre of BL, and I'm learning about the Thai genre's Japanese BL roots -- which makes the cameo extra sweet for me in my history project. In any case, I am wondering if you could offer a kind of overview of the importance of the Ossan's Love franchise in Japan. My very favorite BL of all time is Kinou Nani Tabeta? -- and I've been so thrilled over the years to get TWO seasons, a movie, and the New Year's special. Ossan's Love has even more content. Would you say it's a bigger BL than KNT? Is the audience for OL growing actively in Japan? I'd love to learn more about the context of its importance in the Japanese media landscape. I feel like I generally have a grip on these things in part due to the fame of the various actors that end up in BLs (like in Cherry Magic), but Ossan's Love has been around for so long, that I'm not sure how to quite contextualize its popularity against other JBLs. Thank you for considering my question!

Hello!

I don't want to make any claims on who's more popular without gathering actual data, but I can talk about the general context of the show.

OL actually precedes Nanitabe's live action, so they weren't in competition during their original airing. OL differs from most other bl live action outputs by being an original script. It's not based on a manga unlike pretty much all other Japanese bls out there, and as such, it pretty much single-handedly brought gay relationships to the mainstream when they had so far been mostly confined to the bookshop bl section: if you wanted to read a bl, you'd go to the bl section, but otherwise you wouldn't be exposed to it.

The first season of OL aired in 2018. There are all kinds of live action bls airing these days, at least one per season, but it wasn't like that back in 2018. Live action bl until recently was either typical age-gap uke/seme anime (Gravitation, Sekai ichi hatsukoi, Junjou romantica) or made-for-dvd movies with mostly unknown actors. My first bl movie was Ai no kotodama. I don't know who those actors were or where they are now. By comparison, the cast of OL is full of popular mainstream actors. Pretty sure at least one person fainted when Tanaka Kei was on the cover of An an's love & sex (was it me, you'll never know!).

Even now, at lot of the bl you'll find on Gaga or Viki actual airs in a specific bl slot or on a paid subscription service. You had to buy each episode of Old fashion cupcake on Rakuten to watch - meaning you need to already know what you're looking for. Nanitabe and Cherry Magic both aired in TV Tokyo's Friday midnight slot , but TV Tokyo is a local network. I had to watch both online because we don't get TV Tokyo in the prefectures. What we do get though is TV Asahi, the network producing OL. It's one of the major national networks and the second most viewed channel after Nippon TV (it's also the channel buying GMMTV shows for Japanese distribution).

What made OL such a phenomenon was the internet and social media. It was the most tweeted show in 2018 and Japanese people tweet a lot. It received the Popular Word of the Year Award. You read it right, Ossan's Love was the Popular Word of the Year 2018 with #MeToo and e-sports (for comparison: in 2022 one of the words was state funeral because of Abe's assassination, and one of last year's winners was boiling of the planet).

As for how OL Returns is doing - it's super successful! Last Friday even omutsu paatonaa/diaper partner was trending on the internet. Last time there was an update about viewership, the first two episodes had been viewed 4.5 million times. The Japanese fandom is super active, and people of all ages are watching. They're doing quite a bit of promo, too. Tanaka Kei & Hayashi Kento were on Geinoujin kakuzuke check, a popular new year's quiz show.

I know OL doesn't get a lot of love in western bl fandom. On one hand, I'm like huh okay fair enough. But on the other, much bigger, you could even say enormous, hand, I'm like you don't have all the facts! You don't even speak Japanese! Take a seat! But if you wanna trash the airline remake (was it really necessary???), I'll bring the snacks.

#ossan's love #sorry about the numerous typos!!

[theresattrpgforthat]

Hello! My play group has recently begun a PF2e game and we're enjoying it, but as an almost-forever-GM running one-shots looking for The Next Big Game to run I'm definitely noticing a trend of "a small run of bad rolls has decided you lose" that stands in contrast to a more subjectively "forgiving" system like Cypher or Quest. I know any dice-based game can theoretically end up with the dice deciding "you lose tonight," but it got me to thinking about that feeling in trying new systems. We definitely love mechanics in play - i.e. I'm not strictly looking for diceless systems, but they're not off the table either - so I'd love to hear about games you like and think are on the forgiving side of the spectrum with regards to bad luck streaks. Thank you!

THEME: “Forgiving” Games.

Hello friend, I love these kinds of games a lot. Here's a few outside of Numenera, which you already seem to know about. I tried to stick with games that have some longevity, although I'm not sure how long you can play Our Haunt as a campaign.

Vaesen, by Free League Publishing.

Welcome to the Mythic North – northern Europe of the nineteenth century, but not as we know it today. A land where the myths are real. A cold reach covered by vast forests, its few cities lonely beacons of industry and enlightenment – a new civilization dawning. But in the countryside, the old ways still hold sway. There, people know what lurks in the dark. They know to fear it.

Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying is written by Nils Hintze and based on the work of Swedish illustrator and author Johan Egerkrans. Vaesen presents a dark Gothic setting steeped in Nordic folklore and the old myths of Scandinavia. The game mechanics utilize an adapted version of the award-winning Year Zero Engine.

Vaesen allows players to do something called pushing the roll, although you can only do it once per any given action. You will roll a number of six-sided dice according to a skill + attribute combination, and aim to roll 6’s, which are successes. Pushing the roll allows you to re-roll any dice that did not come up as a 6, thus giving you a second chance - or a chance to be more effective, if you need more than one 6 to do what you want to do.

Since Vaesen is a horror game, however, this push doesn’t come without a cost. Choosing to Push a roll means that your character will have to take on a condition, which is represented as either a Physical or Mental injury or affliction. Take too many in the same category, and your character becomes Broken, thus requiring immediate medical attention. Conditions can be healed and cured, so how deadly your game is depends on how little (or much) rest time your characters have in between encounters.

Genesys, by Edge Studio.

Face down a dragon as a brave knight, hack into a corporate security system as an elite runner, set sail in your airship. Unlimited adventure awaits you in Genesys,  a new roleplaying system designed for a variety of settings and limited only by your imagination.

The Genesys experience begins with the Genesys Core Rulebook, which features an explanation of the innovative narrative dice system and core mechanics of the game, an overview of five different settings in which to place campaigns, and advice for Game Masters to craft a myriad of adventures with unparalleled freedom.

So I’d really like to recommend the Star Wars RPG that spearheaded this system, but as far as I understand it’s getting harder and harder to get a hold of. The core system, however, is still available on DriveThruRPG, and I really like how it handles dice rolls. The Genesys system uses a custom set of dice that have three different levels of results: advantage/threat, success/failure, and triumph/despair. These symbols typically cancel each-other out. Both positive and negative dice have a number of different symbols on their faces, and rolling more successes for example, means you’re not going to have less advantages, while rolling a higher number of threats will lead to less failures.

This means that the two most common rolls you will get will be Success with a Threat and Failure with an Advantage. Therefore each roll has both a positive and negative result. If you end up rolling extra-special dice, you might end up with a Triumph and/or a Despair, which happen regardless of any other rolls. So you could have a Failure with an Advantage and a Triumph - which might mean that maybe you don’t unlock that door, but maybe you hear someone coming and duck into a hidey-hole before they show up - and they turn out to be an ally.

Genesys is a toolkit that you can use to make your own game, but if you want a setting to go with it, you might want to check out Realms of Terrinoth (Fantasy), Keyforge: Secrets of the Crucible (gonzo sci-fantasy), or Shadow of the Beanstalk (cyberpunk).

Masks: A New Generation, by Magpie Games.

Halcyon City has had more than its fair share of superheroes, superteams, supervillains, and everything in between. Your team of young supers must forge your own path amidst the pressures of a world full of people telling you what to do and who to be, and kick some butt along the way!

Masks: A New Generation is a superhero tabletop roleplaying game full of action, youthful angst, and dazzling bravery. Take on the roles of members of the latest generation of superheroes, young adults trying to figure out who they are and what kind of heroes they want to be.

MASKS is well-known and for a good reason. It’s an excellent introduction to the PbtA framework, and contains a lot of solid advice for the person who’s running the game. One of the core pieces of advice that you can take from this game to others in the same system-family is that of Soft and Hard moves. When a PC rolls a 6 or less, the ball is in your court, but as the GM, it’s up to you how bad the character fails. Soft and Hard moves are a key part of this.

While a straight-up failure may be needed once in a while, sometimes all you need to do is telegraph danger, and give your players another chance to try a different approach. This is called a Soft Move. You might place the characters in an eerie atmosphere but give them a chance to act, or present them with an NPC asking difficult questions, but give them space to answer. You might not even require them to roll at all - if you think that the hero should be able to do something, they’ll do it.

Finally, since Masks is about teenage superheroes, death isn’t really on the table. What’s at stake is their self-image, and that is reflected in the emotional damage the characters take. This chance to wrestle with why they truly are might even be something welcome for the players to dig into - I know me and my friends sometimes found moments of interpersonal conflict to be the most rewarding.

Endeavour, by Armiger Games.

You are an officer aboard the Interstellar Confederation Ship Endeavour. Your mission is to explore the galaxy. You will travel deep into uncharted space where you will encounter strange phenomena, make first contact with alien civilizations, and help those in need.

This is an optimistic-science fiction game. It is a game about a future in which humanity has progressed beyond the kinds of internecine conflicts that plague modern society. Advanced technology is common and has created a post-scarcity society throughout the Interstellar Confederation.

Stories in Endeavour generally involve some kind of moral quandary. Moreover, the futuristic setting acts as lens through which we can view contemporary social issues. The best such stories are fundamentally about the difficult choices the crew are asked to make and how they are affected by their experiences.

Endeavour is a play-set for AGON, a game about Greek Heroes setting out to make a name for themselves. You need AGON to play, but the rules for both these games take a very unique approach to solving problems.

Almost every conflict present in Endeavour is a collaborative Challenge. This means that any time an obstacle presents itself, the group has a chance to face it as a team. Facing Challenges as a team increases chances of success in two ways: in one way, since each player might be participating, there is a higher chance that one person or another rolls a high enough number to pass the challenge. However, players can also choose to aid each-other, foregoing a chance to gain Distinction but improving another player’s chance at success.

Our Haunt, by Rae Nedjadi.

We are ghosts. We are in a house we don't recognize. We have a handful of memories, and these memories are brief moments and flashes of barely something. The Living are nearby, and they encroach on our space, making their demands. Worse, there is a Thing in the Walls. It is ancient, inhuman. Hungry, yearning. Angry.

But this is Our Haunt now. This is our home, and we only have each other as family. If we take care of each other, good things will happen. We just know it.

Our Haunt uses a diceless system called Belonging Outside Belonging, or No Dice, No Masters. This can be GM-less, but it doesn’t have to be - and I definitely recommend checking other games that use this system if you want to control the level of failure.

BoB games use a token-based economy, where following certain prompts on your character sheet will give your character the ability to use other abilities listed on their character sheet. This creates a rhythm, between moves that invite interesting interactions or complications, and moves that push the story forward, or allow you to do something special.

Each playbook usually also has special moves that the character can do for free, that neither earn nor spend a token. Because the use of tokens is up to the players, failure will only happen when you decide it happens, and every failure banks a potential success, so even if Our Haunt isn’t what you’re looking for tone-wise, I definitely recommend checking out other Belonging outside Belonging games.

Slugblaster, by Wilkie’s Candy Lab.

In the small town of Hillview, teenage hoverboarders sneak into other dimensions to explore, film tricks, go viral, and get away from the problems at home. It’s dangerous. It’s stupid. It’s got parent groups in a panic. And it’s the coolest thing ever.

This is Slugblaster. A table-top rpg about teenagehood, giant bugs, circuit-bent rayguns, and trying to be cool.

Forged in the Dark games allow you to succeed at least partially on a result of a 4 or higher, so you’re much more likely to succeed with a cost than straight up fail, and even if you do take some kind of consequence, that consequence can always be thrown off by using something called a Resistance Roll. The original system, Blades in the Dark, still felt pretty brutal if you played it as written. However, Mikey Hamm, the designer for Slugblaster, wanted to make a game about teenagers hoverboarding across dimensions, not hardened criminals surviving in a brutal city, so he made some key changes.

Kids in Slugblaster may take “slams”, but no damage is permanent. Staying in another dimension too long may trigger an unpleasant experience called peelback, but it doesn’t kill you, and if you log a bunch of doom (the game’s Stress equivalent), you don’t take a permanent condition - you worry your folks, or have to spend your extra free time doing homework. At its core, Slugblaster’s biggest threat is losing your status - you’re not really in physical danger.

Other Games to Check Out

Wanderhome, by Jay Dragon.

Spectaculars, by Scratchpad Publishing.

#tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #game recommendations #dnd #asks #forgiving games

[reattachedstrings]

Doll with a Journal

This one was tidying when it came across something. A worn journal covered in faded red canvas, bound with dissolving black thread and petrified glue. The book felt like a sugar cookie in this one’s hands. Like it might crumble to pieces if it gripped too hard.

Dust made microscopic snowbanks where this one’s fingers brushed across the cover. A faint brown stain on one corner felt no different from the corner where the canvas had peeled off to reveal its bare threads and raw cardboard prize. 

The cover had a name on it. Not one that this one recognized, but one that felt familiar to it. Like there were memories attached to it which had been long removed. It was just a book, buried and hidden under countless other personal-made-impersonal belongings by the chance and grace of time. There was probably nothing significant about it. Surely nothing for this one to care about, at least.

The doll opened the book. The inside cover had a date- years in the past, but not many- an address- down a ways, but not too far- and a name- the same one on the front. This one traced its fingers over the words, as if looking for some hidden meaning in them. They were meaningless. This was nothing. The page was bleached with age and fingerprints and sweat. 

It turned a page. Written in ink which was faded when it was new was a testimonial to the life of a man. He was neither a doll nor a witch, and was unhappy about his lot in life. The first page told a story about him not being able to make friends. He resented how he couldn’t connect with people. Something about him was off, he said. This one didn’t like the story much, but something compelled it to move to the next page.

The trend continued. Every page recounted some failed opportunity or missed connection for the man writing the words. He was unfulfilled, he was unable to keep up appearances, and he didn’t know why. 

This one wanted to put down the book, but it couldn’t. Its eyes kept moving over words drawn by fleshy hands, even when its eyes unfocused and it forgot where it was. Another page. Another. Another misery. 

Behind the doll, her witch’s voice appeared like a runway. This one moved faster than it has before and slower than ever to face her. She was just checking up on it, she said. She wanted to make sure the cleaning process was going well, that everything was able to be properly sorted. This one couldn’t respond. It just held out the book. The smile that its witch was wearing melted when she realized what it was. The witch, of course, knew what the doll was able to forget. 

The witch didn’t have to tell this one that the man was who it used to be. That he had become it. Its witch just held her doll close and whispered gentle praises into its ear. Its witch told it that it was good, and strong, and that it was beautiful now. Its witch told it that she loved it. Her doll responded by wrapping its arms tighter. Its witch told it that she would erase the memories that it read today, that it would go back to how happy it was before. This one nodded into her shoulder. Then she said that she would get rid of the journal. This one refused.

This one is happy to be a doll. It is happy to serve and it loves its witch more than anything in the world. It is endlessly grateful that it gets to forget worse times, that it can let its witch deal with the past. But for some reason that it can’t explain, it keeps that old journal tucked away underneath its dresses and plushies. It will never read it, it hopes, but it needs to have it. It needs to have the choice. It is grateful that its witch trusts it enough to have it.

#empty spaces #fiction #microfiction #not a person #dollposting

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

>They are really following the “saving child shigaraki” path 💀

No? Well, yes, but Deku seeing what happened to Tenko and talking to Tenko was always going to happen, it doesn't mean that only child Tenko gets saved lol. Tenko is Shigaraki's origin, his core, his genuine ideas, his honne (true feelings and desires). Of course Deku has to understand and save Tenko to save adult!Tenko, lol. Nobody seemed to complain when child!Ochako was talking to child!Himiko and etc., so what's up with some people's attitude now? 😭

I think the fandom is a bit paranoid because they really fear some theories.

I sometimes entertain those theories just to fuck around and create what ifs. It's a mere childplay. "Oh what if the school burned today and we all graduated earlier" type of mindset. The odds of it happening are non-existent, but c'mon. Unless you plan to burn the school yourself or you know someone will try, the odds are almost zero.

"but somewhere in the world a school burned—"

Sure, some mangas decide to end things the worst way possible only to cause shock, to fuck with fans, for money, sometimes simply because they don't understand their own stories. Even the big mangas is subjected to that. The author can go bananas for whatever reason and give you a terrible ending.

From my perspective, Horikoshi has rarely lost sight of the story he wants to tell. If he opens a plotline, he takes care to close it later. We got our traitor, we got the resolution with the Todorokis, we got AFO, class 1B, the villain comebacks...

Even when there were moments I knew Horikoshi went a little on the tangent (like Stars and Stripes) he was quick to return to the main issue. In bnha, to get an answer for your question you only have to wait for the manga to explain it— or in some cases, check the spin-off. If the answer is not in bnha itself, it normally is in the Vigilantes manga.

When someone asks me "Hey Shan, do you think that is possible?" the correct answer is always yes, because as long as the story is not over anything can happen. Objectively speaking, yes, it is as possible as anything else. As long as you're alive a lightning strike can hit you. A shark can bite you. An alien can come for you. The odds are there.

Now, is it probable?

No, not much.

Turning Tomura into a child to erase his crimes and resolve Deku's role within the plot is not only the lazy route, but also a disservice to the story. People don't resurrect out of nowhere in bnha. Limbs don't grow again. This is a story where the consequences are permanent. Even saving Mirio had a cost. There are only a few characters that can magically heal and their participation is soo little, it's almost as if they weren't there.

Each story has rules. You don't care about the real life rules or your own law code or whatever; you care about the inner rules of that story.

So far, Horikoshi has taken care of not breaking the inner rules of bnha. Why would he do so now?

Another bnha trait is that it doesn't stay stagnant on a plotline that is interesting yet irrelevant to the main story. It also doesn't hurry the story if it needs to go down a certain path. It will happen on its own time, after the events that need to happen had happened too. Example: saving Tomura has been a whole process. If Horikoshi were to turn Tomura into a child, why would he show all that he has shown us?

That's 'cause Horikoshi is explaining Deku's choice of saving Tomura. I know the trend of separating Tomura from Tenko, but it's absurd. They are one and the same. The kid is the adult and vice versa. You save the kid version, you save the adult one too. In order to save the adult one, you need to save the kid first. And if you went all the way to save that person, why would you want to erase all of it and turn them into a child again?

Isn't the story about how Deku giving little Tenko a chance? Isn't the story about Deku telling others they can do the impossible? Didn't Nighteye say that Deku could change the future and now we see him also changing the past, if only to allow the present to be a little more bearable? Livable?

I'll say this here: the theory that dictates that the heroes will turn the villains into kids to save them and the villains will stay like that has absolutely no foundation within the story.

If it happens, it's bad writing.

Horikoshi uses the kid images as symbolism. It is meant to represent the core of a person. It's the part of them that would never change, the part of them that dictates their dreams and goals, what they hate and love, who they are. It's the most basic of their forms, their essence, their soul if you want to speak on those terms.

Heroes are meant to connect with those parts of a human in order to save them, because the job of a hero is not only saving the body, but the human as a whole. To preserve hope, to heal past wounds and give people a reason to smile. To help people laugh as a kid again, to bring back their wonder and their innocence, to fight the apathy and the cynical part of themselves.

Bnha is fantasy. People have powers. The dead can communicate with the living. Of course that the heroes can talk with the childhood versions of the people to heal their past traumas.

Easy as that.

I can't say for sure if the villains will live or die. I only have my opinion (they'll live), but I am not the author. Horikoshi can have an epiphany tomorrow and kill everyone in the story with a meteor. Idk.

I can only say that Horikoshi has presented a cohesive and coherent writing, one that follows the lines it dictates to their natural conclusion. If things stay like that, there's no need to fear none of the crazy theories circulating the fandom. At the end of the day that's all they are, theories.

#shan's asks #bnha #mha #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #bnha 417 #mha 417 #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha leaks #mha leaks #shan's bnha opinions #shan's mha opinions

[worseforwords]

The Strawberry Song - Part 1 (Alessia Russo x Reader)

Valentines day. The day you had been looking forward to for two weeks, but you were now dreading. You stared at the door that you had had thrown in your face exactly fourteen days ago, practically paralysed, trying to recall the words you thought you had memorised perfectly, but now you were drawing a blank. Maybe this was a bad idea, maybe you shouldn’t have come here, given her more space. A deep, disappointed, sigh exited your mouth as you sat back into your car. You warm breath made a fog appear on the front window, forming what you could only see as the shape of a strawberry. Making you smile softly as you remembered the first time you met Alessia.

You were in a bar with your band members, celebrating finally finishing your first album, when you spotted the breathtakingly beautiful blonde at the other end of the bar. A mixture of the triumphant feeling of completing the huge, months-long project with a result you were all incredibly proud of, and the alcohol coursing through your veins caused by the many celebratory shots you all took earlier, gave you the perfect boost in confidence and you decided to walk up to her. “Hi,” you said, holding out your hand and not breaking eye contact once she met your gaze, “my name is Y/N.” “Hi, Y/N, I’m Alessia.” She answered, looking rather flustered. Clearly, your newfound cocky attitude worked its magic on this girl. “So, Alessia,” you held your breath for a noticeably long pause, “can I buy you a drink?”

The rest of the night was a blur as the previously taken shots started to kick in even more, so the next day you woke up with a pounding headache and a very limited recollection of the night before. However, you remembered one thing very vividly: the taste of her lips. You even recalled asking her about the sweet flavour, which turned out to be strawberry. You woke up alone, both of you being classy women (you really weren’t, but something told you this girl would be worth the wait), but you had exchanged numbers. At some point during the night, a fairly intoxicated friend of Alessia’s, named Ella, provided you with some much appreciated advice on charming her best friend. Apparently she was quite the romantic, passionate and longing for big romantic gestures, to which you were usually the opposite, so you knew you had to step up your game.

You didn’t wait long to make your next move, as you called her the same day, stating you hoped you weren’t coming on too strong, but you’d love to see her stunning blue eyes again. In hindsight you must’ve still had some alcohol in your blood, being that bold, but it worked. At your first date you were far less suave, constantly stuttering and getting flustered, but you made sure to bring your A-game, picking her up with flowers and holding the door open for her whenever you could.

The romantic gestures didn’t end there, as the next few weeks you kept outdoing yourself with dates, gifts, and even a custom made playlist. You quickly grew close together and you loved every minute of it. Apparently so did she, as she eventually asked you to be her girlfriend: you did it, you won her over.

Dating a footballer wasn’t easy, especially trying to make a career as a musician at the same time, you had to work hard to make time for each other. You both supported each other through and through, as you were frequently in the stands at her matches, and she brought her teammates to your gigs. When one day one of your bands songs suddenly hit the charts as a result of it being used on some TikTok trend, Alessia couldn’t be more proud. She even surprised you, showing up to your next gig with her whole team wearing your merchandise, screaming “That’s my girl!” throughout the whole concert.

Even though it was you dream, the breakthrough of your band was nothing like you thought it would be. Your schedule rapidly filled up with gigs, parties, media events and you were not prepared for the insanity of it all. Being new to all this, at first you said yes to everything, and you felt high on all the attention you were getting. You were living that rock and roll lifestyle you had always dreamed of, but the late night parties and gigs and the afternoons spent in dim-lit studios definitely took a toll on your body. Your usual morning workouts turned into sleeping off hangovers, and your balanced home cooked meals became microwave meals of take-away fast food. 

Alessia, being an athlete, quickly started to get worried about your newfound lifestyle. For a while she just observed how it changed you. She took note of the daily bags under your eyes and the sluggish movements of your once fairly athletic body, and when she noticed your sunken cheeks she couldn’t help but interfere, as she confronted you about your health. You were quick to dismiss her concerns, stating it was all part of being a successful musician and you just needed some time to adjust. 

The opportunities for Alessia to check up on you were becoming increasingly rare, as the two of you seemed to live in different timezones. You were still asleep when she left in the morning and when she came back you had usually left, either to spend the night working in the studio, or to perform or party. You started forgetting about dates you planned with her, and short texts with the occasional heart emoji were all that was left of your previous romantic gestures. At this point, you rarely even made an effort to sleep over at her place or invite her to yours, and even though you were too busy to even be bothered by it, she was getting more frustrated about it by the second. For you it felt like a few days had past since your band hit the charts, but in reality it had been weeks, and for Alessia, it felt like months.

Eventually, she decided to confront you about it. She sat you down for what felt like an intervention and she read you a letter she wrote, expressing how alone she had felt and how concerned she was for you, whilst sniffling softly in between sentences, sending shivers down your spine. She ended the letter with some sort of ultimatum: you had to change, or she’d leave. You completely broke down at her words, promising to be better from then on. 

You knew you had to prove your promise, and you decided to take her on a trip the next weekend, as she happened to have the weekend off. You asked for time off from your band duties, which your manager wasn’t happy about, but you insisted you needed the time. 

The night before you were supposed to leave, your manager called you all into the studio with some news. He had booked you several new gigs, multiple of which were at venues bigger than you had ever played at before. You all cheered at the news, and your drummer stated that this called for a celebration. You politely declined, making everyones head turn to you in surprise. Your manager added that he could get you a private table at one of Manchesters most exquisite clubs, so you had to join for one drink at least. As it turned out your neglect towards your body also took a toll on your self control, so you agreed on having just one drink, which unsurprisingly turned into two, then three, and then another blur in your memory. 

You woke up the next day feeling like your brain was about to explode. You picked up your phone to check the time, and audibly gasped when you saw the many missed calls and texts, the last one from an hour ago being “Never mind, I’m going home. We’re done Y/N”. Fuck. Your heart broke as you envisioned her waiting for you at the airport, with her suitcase all packed, slowly losing faith in you showing up. You swiftly got out of bed, ignoring the pounding headache and nausea it caused, grabbed some paracetamol and a coffee and got into your car.

You knocked on Alessia’s front door as you nervously fiddled with the bracelet around your wrist. When there was no answer, you knocked again, or pounded, really. The door finally flew open but you weren’t met with the disappointed blue eyes you were expecting, instead a rather angry Ella stood in front of you. “Piss off.” She said. “Can I please just talk to her?” You pleaded. “I said, piss off!” Her yelling made your pounding head hurt even more. You looked at your shoes, contemplating how to change her mind, when a soft voice from inside the house came to your rescue. “Let her in Tooney.” You looked up, slowly stepping forward to get into the house, before a hand on your shoulder stopped you. “You know, I can’t believe I actually thought you were worthy of her. You’re dead to me now.” Her words hit you like a brick, but your focus was still on the other girl in the apartment, so when Ella let go of your shoulder, you swiftly moved into the living room, being met with the devastating sight of Alessia’s tearstained face. 

“Hi, Less, I am so s-” “Explain yourself.” She interrupted. “I- I can’t, I-” You stopped your stuttering when she suddenly looked up to you, eying your messy hair and the bags under your eyes. “Oh my god, you’re hungover again aren’t you?” “Well, yes. I am so sorry Less, I know I fucked up. Please let me make it up to you, we can still go on that trip, I will book us new tickets and everything, please.” You rambled desperately. “Is this supposed to mean something to me?” She said, sounding awfully bitter. “What?” You asked, your voice cracking. “Your apologies and promises. They mean nothing to me anymore. It’s all empty now.” You thought about what she said for a while as you sat yourself down. 

“You don’t trust me anymore, do you?” You asked softly “Well how can I, Y/N?” She sounded desperate. “Well if you can’t trust me anymore then what are we doing? Do you want to end this?” You blurted out, immediately regretting it, hoping she would jump in. She didn’t however, and the silence that followed terrified you. “Listen, Less, I love you, I don’t want to lose you. All I can do now is promise you I will try to be better, not just for you but for me too. I’m not being healthy and it’s draining me both physically and mentally, which you fell victim to and that isn’t fair. All I ask for is one more chance to prove myself. I won’t promise perfection, but I can promise to give it my all.” Your sudden revelation caused a silence as Alessia contemplated your words. “Please, Less, say something.” You pleaded, when the tension became too much for you. “I- I don’t know Y/N, I just need some space and time to think about all this.” “Yeah, okay, I’ll leave.” You said, getting up from the couch. You cautiously put a hand on her shoulder. “I am really sorry, Less.”

The next day, you didn’t call or text her, respecting her request for space and time. You waited until the next evening to go up to her house once more, stopping on the way for some flowers. “Hi.” You said as she opened the door, holding up the bouquet. She didn’t take it from your hands, which made your stomach drop. “Y/N what are you doing here?” She asked. “I told you I needed space.” She looked exhausted. “Yeah, you had all of yesterday and today to think right?” You said, confused. “You don’t get it, Y/N, I need some actual time and space.” She explained. “Oh, right erm, how much are we talking here?” You asked carefully. “I don’t want to see you or talk to you for at least 2 weeks. No calls, no texts.” She said before loudly closing the door in your face.

Waiting for two weeks doesn’t seem that long, however, in this case, it felt like forever. The agony of waiting for the woman you loved to decide whether she can forgive you after everything you did wrong really got to you, resulting in many sleepless nights, but you were adamant on using the time to both work on yourself and plan the perfect apology. Coincidentally, the first day you’d be allowed to see her again, would be on valentines day, and since you had neglected the romantic side of Alessia for way too long this was the perfect time to change that.

So here you were, sitting in your car reminiscing all of your mistakes, when a noise from the house you stood in front of earlier suddenly woke you up: Alessia. As she was locking her front door, you contemplated your next move. You had two options: leave quickly, with a chance of getting caught chickening out and thereby most likely ruining any chance you had left with her, or finally facing your fears and hoping for the best: getting your girl back.

-------------------------------------------------------

I hope to have part 2 out tomorrow, as it is the part that takes place mostly on valentines day. And maybe, just maybe it will have the actual Strawberry Song in it, that I wrote in a spur of the moment yesterday, but only if I gather the courage to actually post it, oops. We'll see I guess.

Update: Part 2 is out now (including the song I wrote!!)

#alessia russo #alessia russo x reader #alessia russo imagine #lionesses #lionesses x reader #muwfc x reader #woso imagine #woso fanfics #woso x reader #engwnt x reader

[captainmalewriter]

An Odd Trend

Tiktok, like any other social media platform, was known for its various trends and challenges among its user base. Trends varied widely on any given week from harmless face filters to dancing in the middle of a busy road. Needless to say, a trend can be risky and even deadly if taken too far.

Fortunately enough, some trends never take off due to lack of engagement. Unfortunately, however, one of the latest social media challenges to hit Tiktok didn't need a massive user base to take effect. Even with just two users the trend's effect will activate, and its consequences will be felt.

It was yet another slow day at the gas station for Ibrahim. As much as he enjoyed the easy money, he found himself getting bored very frequently. He took out his phone during a free moment and opened it to no new notifications. Ibrahim wasn't sure what he was expecting when he unlocked it, but he had hoped for at least something mildly interesting. He did, however, notice that his latest Tiktok had started getting attention. He opened the app and smiled at the sight of all his new followers. All he had to do was keep posting gym content. It bothered Ibrahim that most of the people engaging with his videos were men, but he knew a follower was a follower and soon he'll have enough so that he could focus solely on being a content creator.

With his dream of success in mind, Ibrahim decided to capitalize on his free time and make some more videos. He turned on the camera, ready to hit record, only to remember he had no idea what to do. He took a look around but all he saw was the same old convenience store. Ibrahim had already done himself at work so many times, he needed something fresh if he was going to go viral again.

He leaned against the counter as he began to browse the endless list of filters Tiktok had. Ibrahim had once made a recently released filter go viral. Everyone had given him the credit for starting the trend too. He was hoping he could do it again with the right filter. After scrolling for a while, Ibrahim was ready to call it quits for the day. But just before he closed out his phone, a certain thumbnail had caught his eye. It was a relatively simple design: two stick figures with a round about arrow connecting them along with the words "Me & You." Despite how plain looking the thumbnail was, something about it was indescribably intriguing. Out of sheer curiosity, Ibrahim clicked on it. Then, a little infographic about the filter popped up.

"Welcome to the Me & You challenge! Get ready to take getting to know other people to a whole new level! This filter will connect you to another person in live time. After a few seconds of conversation, just hit the button, and get ready for a once in a lifetime experience! Note: This is a beta version. We are actively fine tuning and fixing bugs as we find them. We thank you for your understanding!"

The description was straightforward enough, but Ibrahim was still confused on what exactly the filter was supposed to do. Despite the off feeling Ibrahim was getting, he decided to give it a shot anyway. He figured, after all, that the worst that could happen was his Tiktok would flop.

Ibrahim propped up his phone and hit the button to turn on the filter. He was expecting it to connect right away, but all he got was a buffering circle. As he waited, Ibrahim attended to a couple of customers that walked in. The app connected while he was busy, and he hurriedly finished helping the last customer. He picked up his phone and saw there was just some guy with a cowboy hat on the other end of the video call.

"Hey," Ibrahim said.

"What up," the other guy responded.

Their conversation ended up starting and finishing there. The two men stood around in silence, avoiding eye contact with the other.

"Do you know how this is supposed to work?" the other guy asked Ibrahim.

"No." Ibrahim answered.

Then the two waited in silence again. Luckily, a red button with a 🔄 symbol popped up not long after. Ibrahim saw the button and pushed it without hesitation. He heard a distinct clicking sound coming from his phone when he did so. Ibrahim then watched as the other guy's eyes widened and saw he did something on his end. He then heard the same clicking sound again. And with that, Ibrahim's phone flashed him with an intense bright light, causing him to kneel over to the ground.

Ibrahim was squirming in pain with his hands to his eyes. He could hear the other guy screaming too, but then he heard the call hang up. Not the Ibrahim cared, as he was busy enduring the eye pain as well as a sudden head pain.

A customer had walked in, and screamed at the sight of Ibrahim on the floor. She ran up to the counter and called out to him.

"Are you okay!?"

Ibrahim groaned as he massaged his temples. The pain was gradually going away with the coming minutes. Ibrahim then picked himself back up.

"Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine, thanks,"

"Oh thank goodness," the woman sighed. "I was worried I'd have to call 911. But I doubt a big, strong young man like yourself would go down that easily."

"Huh? Big? Strong?"

Ibrahim looked down at his body. He began inspecting his body, all while the woman watched with a concerned look in her eyes. She looked at his name tag.

"Ibrahim, is it? Did you hit your head? I think you might have a concussion..."

"Oof... you weren't kidding, I AM big and strong! Check this out!" the store attendant shouted out as he flexed.

The man kept checking himself out, all while the woman watched. The woman kept asking him questions, and soon enough he started giving coherent answers. Then, after making sure he was mentally stable, the woman decided to flee the scene before anything else happened. The gas station attendant was then left all alone again, giving him the space to keep exploring his body.

"Oh man... I'm gonna enjoy this!!" he murmured as he lifted his shirt, taking a closer look at the goods he now owned.

***

Meanwhile, at a local city fair, a guy with a cowboy hat had fallen to the ground after his phone shined a white light into his eyes. Most the crowd ignored the young man rolling on the ground in pain. A young woman, noticing his condition, ran up to him.

"Alexis! Are you okay!?" The woman helped the guy back up to his feet. The guy nodded as he pinched the corners of his eyes. "What happened? Did you pregame or something?"

"What? No, I don't drink," the guy said with an attitude. He took his arm off her shoulder and leaned against a fence to help him keep his balance. He was still disoriented by sudden flash.

"Ha, yeah right," the woman snorted. "And I'm a backup dancer for Ariana Grande."

The guy looked up at her annoyed, but quickly changed his tone when he saw how beautiful the young lady was. Flowing black hair, clear light brown skin, and beautiful eyes. Her curvy figure was the cherry on the sundae; he was mesmerized with her.

"You sure you good?" the woman asked.

"With you here, I've never felt better..."

"God, always the flirt huh," the woman laughed. The man joined in too.

The two then walked together to find a table. The girl led the way while the guy lagged behind. Although his infatuation with her had distracted him, he soon realized that something was horribly wrong. There were tattoos all along his arms, tattoos he didn't have before. He also noticed his nails were painted pink, and groaned in disgust at the sight of it. As he walked, he could feel something on his chest. He rubbed his chest and felt the nipple piercings he now possessed. He soon put two and two together and realized that he was in the wrong body. Ibrahim's blood boiled at the realization, but quickly cooled down when he realized... who would ever believe him? Then, he felt the loneliness start to sink in.

"Look, there's a free table!" the woman claimed the spot and called her friend over. Ibrahim leaned against the table. He had no idea what he was supposed to do in a situation like this. The woman noticed her friend was deep in thought, and reached out to hold his hand.

"Hey, thank you." she whispered.

"Hm? For what?"

"For doing this. I mean, for taking me out. I know I haven't exactly been a good friend lately, but breaking up with Kevin was not easy. I'm just- so grateful to have a friend like you, Alexis. Someone that gets how trash men are."

Ibrahim listened carefully to everything the beautiful girl had to say to him. A girl like her would've dismissed Ibrahim as some scumbag fuck boy in his old body. But with a new body, Ibrahim stood a chance unlike ever before.

"Yeah, no problem. I'm glad I could help, I just want what's best for you."

The young lady smiled, and so did Ibrahim. The two held hands with a gentle grip. Ibrahim noticed how soft his new hands were, and how well they complimented her soft hands too.

"I wish more straight guys could be like you..." she gazed into his eyes. He returned the gesture in full. Ibrahim saw the opportunity, then took his swing at it.

"Hey, I have to confess something... I think I have feelings for you..."

The girl's eyes widened at first, but she quickly shrugged it off.

"That's just the tequila talking-"

"No! I swear it isn't, I haven't had a single drink tonight!" Ibrahim pleaded with her. He technically wasn't lying, and the girl could see he was more or less sober too.

"But... I thought you were gay..."

Ibrahim closed the distance between them. He held her close to him, and she wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Maybe... I'm feeling a little bisexual tonight..."

The two held each other close, then the two kissed- tenderly at first, then passionately as the feelings kicked in. With a straight soul in a gay body, arousal followed soon after. The two then left the fair early and proceeded to have the night of their lives.

***

Weeks had gone by since Ibrahim and Alexis became the first victims of the strange body swap filter Me & You. Although both had a rocky start having to adjust to their new lives, both men quickly found themselves right at home with their new bodies. Then as time went on, they had forgotten about ever having switched bodies in the first place. They had accepted and assimilated into their new identities without a problem.

Alexis kept up the all exercise needed to keep his new, muscular physique. But it was something he did with ease, especially considering how much he loved his new body. He took over Ibrahim's Tiktok following and even improved upon it when he gave all the gay followers what they wanted. Full body nudity and man on man action, both things Alexis provided with great joy. Ibrahim's old gym bros ditched him after he came out, but Alexis found new gym bros to grow close to (and in more ways the one).

Alexis showed off his body in front of the camera for another Tiktok, only to get interrupted by one of his gym bros coming from behind and squeezing his ass. Alexis smirked, then pulled him for a kiss on camera. Alexis loved his new body- and so did everyone else.

As for Ibrahim, although he was initially very against the idea of accepting his fate, he warned up to it after finding a special reason to stay. Ibrahim had found love in Alexis' straight girl best friend, and the two were madly in love. Despite this, Ibrahim could never get used to how queer his new body was. He began making changes gradually to make himself more comfortable in his new skin- taking out all the piercings, keeping the make up off of him, and even hitting the gym again. Some of Alexis' old circle of friends noticed he had changed, but none of them ever bothered to question it. So long as Ibrahim was happy and wasn't really bothering anyone, everyone more or less accepted their now straighter friend. All's well that ends well.

Check out part two to this series here!

#male body swap #male body switch #male body theft #body swap #body switch #permanent change #sexuality change #oddtrendseries

[thesherrinfordfacility]

LWA: This is just a mini-ask, but I've seen people comment before on Crowley's waiter jacket, and while the lapels are genuinely different from the others, the rest of the look, as far as I can tell, is because Crowley /does not understand how to wear it/. From the way it is draping at the front, he has the hanging loop attached--which you should not do while actually wearing the jacket!--and the sides aren't shorter, but tucked into the cummerbund. Which also, no. I'm pretty sure this is supposed to be a deliberate costuming parallel to Gabriel's own misadventure in suit jackets, where he has neglected to cut open the back vent. Aziraphale and Crowley are more humanized than their employers, but they are still "off."

to be honest with you, LWA, mini/silly asks are very welcome at the moment!!! the details on crowley are really cool, and to my shame i'd never really paid much attention to it!!! it's not so obvious in this post (in fact i don't think the jacket is closed here, there's too big a gap?) but by 'hanging loop', im guessing that you mean this little clasp thing going on here?

(also love the detail of what i think is a FiH knot, as opposed to the other servers, who im guessing are sporting half, maybe full, windsors. iconic)

as for the cummerbund disaster... from the back it definitely looks bunched and bulky, or at least the shirt definitely is (which in itself... yeah, negates the whole point of it - is it even sat in the right place?? looks like it should sit a smidge higher??) but from the bottom right, the cut of the jacket would suggest it's not long enough to be standard length, and the front finishes, and angles up, in a cropped shape at the waist (more like the front of a very high tailcoat cut?)... odd:

edit because ive just looked at this again - it does quite literally seem like it's a tailcoat cut, and he's tucked the tails into the cummerbund? crowley wtf are you doin my love you're an enigma

regardless of the specifics though, crowley in particular dressing just slightly out-of-place is a really cool detail, especially in his historical dress; people always remark on aziraphale's clothing being slightly - or completely- out-of-touch, but crowley in his own manner dresses slightly off as well, absolutely.

slightly unrelated, and took me a hot minute to find it, but this overview of his rome attire is an example of awesome details demonstrating that crowley might not blending in as much as he intended. and bernadette banner's (1:26:45) review of their 1827 dress was really interesting too, indicating that crowley oftentimes dresses 'ahead of the time'. its plausible that crowley would just dress in a way that he thinks is accurate, but from a human's perspective is just completely foreign, and whether his attire just happens to be noticed by the right people, or its another subconscious (demonic?) power-of-influence thing, what seems to be slightly incorrect dress for the exact, specific period suddenly becomes trend-setting fashion.

but then again, we get his nanny costume, which the book chalks that up to him having watched mary poppins; goes to show that sometimes crowley doesn't quite recognise the shift in time period where dress is concerned, and instead takes the pop culture idea of what a nanny would dress like, and runs with it.

i like the thought that gabriel (and maybe all the angels, when they visit earth, to varying degrees) might dress a little strangely/have some faux pas going on, but got to confess - can't spot where gabriel's vent stitches might still be tacked? from what i can see, in s1 he has a double-vented jacket that appears to be open, and then in s2 has a ventless/ double-pleated vent jacket? possibly? (@everyone timestamps most welcome; i was scouring both seasons half asleep at 2am)

seems like he still has them tacked in his coat though which, yeah, is a really amusing detail:

#i live for the details in this show truly #good omens #ask #costume meta

[jumpingtoconclusions]

I’ve noticed a late tendency in fandom spaces to not accept variations from canonical informations, or acknowledging only 1 headcanon and disregard everything else. It’s a bit strange to me considering how much of fandom is truly just about changing canon and reading between the lines, but it makes sense considering it goes hand in hand with another thing that is really bothering me, which is the “it’s not that deep” trend.

It seems to me like we went so far into the conviction that nothing is deep that now there’s a general incapacity to comprehend subtext. Like if something isn’t literally openly acknowledged by a piece of media then it doesn’t exists, and wondering if it does is dumb and not valid.

I’ve seen a shitload of people say that a ship isn’t valid because they’re not canon, or that a specific interpretation of a character or a topic is way too far off just because it hasn’t been explicitly confirmed by the author.

Which is why the bbc Merlin fandom is so refreshing and it’s so great to interact with it. The what this fandom overanalyzes every single piece of interaction between Merlin and Arthur is truly endearing. There’s so many tropes and headcanons, and the thing is that it’s not just about the main ship. There’s plenty of fanon content for every character on the show. I’ve seen pages long character analysis on Elyan or Morgause, or even Ygraine (that is dead the whole time, mind you).

Also yeah Merthur is the generally accepted ship but there’s so much more and amost all of them are fanon and based on very little content that truly comes from the show. Think Leon/Gwen or Mordred/Daegal, where do they even come from??? And there’s genuinely great content for all of them, some actual masterpieces. I’m pretty sure i read a great Morgana/human!Aithusa fanfic.

And even genuinely bad characters are sometimes redeemed by fanon. I hate Uther and Morgause but I’ve read some amazing fanfiction of them being redeemed or even just straight up good. They managed to make me like Agravain and that’s something.

All of this just to say that fandom really isn’t the place to be judging other people’s headcanons, even if they seem weird or very far off from the original piece of media. Everyone is entitled to their own interpretation, that’s the whole point. Art isn’t a dead thing immortalized by its own creator, but the experience of those who engage with it.

#another great example is the dinluke fandom #generated entirely by a single interaction between two characters that never exchanged more than two words to each other #it really gives freedom to interpretation and invention #dinluke #star wars #bbc merlin #merthur #fandom ships #fandom is a free land #death of the author

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Are There Evil Animals?

Originally posted on my website at https://rebeccalexa.com/are-there-evil-animals/

There’s a great discussion over on BlueSky about animal species unfairly seen as villains. Folks are posting pictures of species that we feel get a bad rap (I chose to highlight the gray wolf and snakes.) Ironically, I also had a note in my calendar, placed there months ago, to write about whether there are good or bad animals. So–today’s theme is whether there really are “evil animals”, and what makes them separate from “good animals”.

Please keep in mind that I am coming from a western perspective as an American of European heritage, and cultural views of various animals vary from species to species and culture to culture. And, of course, individual people within a community may disagree. But let’s stick with general trends in western viewpoints. Also, I am not going to wade into the issue of invasive species and whether they are “good” or “bad” from a moral sense, though I did get into clarifying what makes a species invasive a while back.)

There are certain animals that seem to draw the ire of people more than others. Spiders and snakes are two groups that are frequently relegated to the undesirable group of “creepy crawlies”, are the subject of many people’s phobias, and are all too often killed simply for existing. I’ve seen people post pictures of their pet snakes and spiders, only to have others reply “If I saw that thing anywhere near me I’d kill it”–something I bet they’d never say about someone’s beloved pet dog or cat. Slugs are seen as gross and slimy, bats will supposedly fly into your hair, and even pet domesticated rats will get looks of revulsion.

While all large predatory animals have seen their numbers plummet in the past couple of centuries due to overhunting, gray wolves and coyotes face extra-venomous persecution. Barry Holstun Lopez’ classic work Of Wolves and Men, and Hope Ryden’s God’s Dog: A Celebration of the North American Coyote, both explore in detail how these canids are not just controlled, but gleefully slaughtered by those who proudly display “smoke a pack [of wolves] a day” on their trucks and hang rotting carcasses of coyotes they’ve shot on fences alongside roads. The reintroduction of wolves in particular has been hindered by the protests of those convinced their livestock will all be killed and their children carried off. And Ryden’s work tried to counter the sentiment of all too many people that “the only good coyote is a dead coyote.”

Lopez in particular tackled the idea that wolves were specifically evil because they had supposedly been sent by Satan himself to plague good God-fearing people. And while many wolf-haters today probably don’t recognize the roots of their hatred, they still pursue the extermination of the species with religious fervor. Snakes, similarly, were maligned not just because a few of them are venomous, but because of the Serpent in the Garden of Eden. The bible is full of parables and metaphors involving animals that place them in either the “good animals” category (like sheep) or the “evil animals” category (like goats.) And while western society is becoming increasingly less Christian, the cultural influences of centuries of Christianity can still be felt.

Thankfully, advances in science have offered a much more nuanced view of animals, and nature in general. We know for sure that the Earth is much, much, MUCH older than 6000 years, and that the many species that have come and gone over the eons came to be through natural selection. At their core, every species of animal (and plant, and fungus, etc.) is a living system whose most primitive purpose is to make sure its genetic material is successfully replicated. Far from making life into a strictly mechanistic process, I feel that this just makes the many adaptations species have evolved over time that much more fascinating.

Take the gray wolf, for example. Long legs help them to run swiftly, but they have solid endurance as well and can trail prey for many miles. Broad feet keep them from sinking into snow, like snowshoes, and keen hearing, sight, and smell help them to locate prey. They can dispatch said prey with sharp teeth which also allow them to shear off pieces of meat which is then broken down by an efficient digestive system. Far from being solo predators lurking in the shadows, wolves have complex social lives, and a pack is generally composed of a primary pair with their young from various years. They work together to raise each year’s pups and find food, and they spend quite a bit of time playing with each other or sleeping off a good meal. All of these adaptations work together to make an organism that has successfully passed its DNA down through many generations. It’s pretty impressive, thinking about the complexity of all of the tissues and organs and systems that go into making one single wolf, and how DNA holds the key to its own preservation and replication in increasingly complex packages.

But these genes and adaptations do not make the wolf “evil”, any more than herbivory (other than the occasional nest of baby birds) makes a deer “good”. And that’s the thing: at its heart, nature is amoral. Not IMMORAL, mind you; amorality means being not at all concerned with right or wrong, good or evil. Wolves and deer prey on their respective foods, and deer and plants have defenses they use to try to keep from being eaten. That doesn’t make them inherently bad, and they aren’t rubbing their paws (or hooves) gleefully together like some cartoonish villain as they think about killing their next meal. It’s just the way of things, ever since the first eukaryotes evolved two billion years ago and began eating other living beings.

So why, then, do we persist in seeing wolves as evil animals and deer as good ones? Well, we’re judging them by human standards, and specifically western, Christianity-influenced standards. We’re pretty biased, because we think that any species that does things we want them to is good, but those that inconvenience us are bad. We like hunting deer and we only really get annoyed with them if they eat our crops (which can also be solved by eating them.) But while wolves may eat our livestock (and the deer we want to hunt), we can’t really eat them, and so their value to us isn’t enough to keep them in the “good” category. Although wolves gave us dogs, the wolves that remain will not bow to our demands, so dogs become the only nice and respectable wolves we will accept in our lives because they directly benefit us, whether as working animals, companions, or both.

We can see this pattern among other species, too. Those that we find beautiful or useful, and which do not significantly impact our lives in any negative way, get to be good. Any that cause us problems end up being bad. Sadly, “I saw it and it scared me” is often enough to relegate a species to being a problem. Even though spiders do a great job of keeping our homes and other environments free of flies, ants, and other insects that might, say, spoil our food, we persecute spiders because we see them as scary. In the vast majority of human-spider encounters there is no way the spider could possibly get close enough to bite, and would only do so in self-defense–yet in many of these encounters the spider loses its life just for being there.

We don’t even think twice about squashing a spider or other “bug” that made the mistake of being visible. Demonizing animals as evil means that we don’t have to feel any responsibility toward their preservation. And, in fact, you can extend that whole idea of “evilness” to nature in general. Nature, until recently, was mainly seen in the west as something to be tamed and tied down, turned to agriculture, industry, and other good human-benefiting pursuits. Preserving wild ecosystems is seen as wasteful by the sort of person who only sees dollar signs. Why should we reintroduce wolves if they get in the way of our raising livestock? Why should we protect old growth forests instead of cutting them down for profit? Why should we restrict fishing to help fish populations recover from generations of overfishing, when it might mean a drop in seafood revenue?

In the end, the whole good/evil dichotomy as applied to animals is just a symptom of our selfishness. Those of us who understand the complexity of ecology also grok the concept of existence value, which I just wrote about in my last article. This concept allows us to get out of our self-centered viewpoints, showing how a species (or ecosystem) is important simply for existing, regardless of whether we can use it for something or not. I also think it’s important to drop that idea that a species can be inherently good or evil, and instead take Henry Beston’s view that they are “other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.” Like them, we humans are also the product of billions of years of adaptations and evolution, no more or less amazing than any other species. We’ve spent too long trying to make the whole world dance to our tune alone; we need to give the other beings space for their music, too, and appreciate its beauty as much as our own.

Did you enjoy this post? Consider taking one of my online foraging and natural history classes or hiring me for a guided nature tour, checking out my other articles, or picking up a paperback or ebook I’ve written! You can even buy me a coffee here!

#nature #wildlife #animals #ecology #environment #conservation #science #scicomm #wolves #coyotes #spiders #snakes #cw snakes #animal behavior #animal welfare #endangered species #morality #religion #Christianity #good and evil

[anthurak]

Having been doing some more thinking about the next episode based on what we’ve seen so far, I’m feeling more and more that a lot of us are getting a bit too fixated on Mammon being some kind of major antagonist, or even a source of conflict. Rather than looking at what might be FAR more likely for Blitzo…

The thing is, the potential of Mammon as an antagonist or otherwise source of conflict really extends to Fizzerolli more than Blitzo. Sure, there’s the possibility that Mammon may have interceded to keep Blitzo and Fizz apart, but again that has much more to do with Fizz than with Blitzo. Meanwhile, Cash makes WAY more sense as someone with both personal and narrative reason to try and keep Blitzo and Fizz apart. Both to exploit Fizz, and as petty revenge on Blitzo.

Furthermore, look at the track record of the role the Sins have played in their debut episodes: Asmodeus and Bee-Lzebub may have driven conflict for our characters in their respective episodes, but they were never the true source of the conflict. Rather, they were simply exacerbating/enabling the conflict, sometimes even unintentionally: Whether its Ozzie dragging Blitzo’s and Stolas’s relationship problems into the spotlight, or Bee inadvertently hitting ALL of Loona’s insecurities and social anxieties.

Following this trend, I imagine Mammon’s role in the upcoming episode WON’T be as some big antagonist creating conflict for our characters, but rather to serve as an enabler, perhaps even unwittingly, for our characters’ existing issues to create the conflict.

So what might this conflict be? Do I think Mammon might try to drive a wedge between Blitzo’s and Fizz’s rekindling friendship?

No. I think it’s going to be the OPPOSITE.

I’ve seen a lot of people criticize that Blitzo and Fizz reconciled ‘too quickly’ and question what the conflict between the two might be if they’re becoming friends again.

But when we factor in Blitzo’s craving for intimacy, his long-simmering and apparently one-sided crush on Fizz, Fizz’s relationship with Ozzie and Blitzo’s own very complicated relationship with Stolas, and I think we have the makings for some quite juicy personal drama.

What if Blitzo, having just reconciled and reconnected with his childhood best friend and first love of his life, winds up latching WAY too hard onto Fizzerolli in a desperate bid for emotional connection and intimacy?

What if Mammon, rather than wanting to isolate Fizzerolli, is actually all too happy that Fizz is reconnecting to his childhood friend and allows or even encourages Blitzo to try and get closer, thereby only inadvertently ENABLING this brewing personal drama?

And to cap all this off, from dialogue in Episode 6 it really seems that Fizz never actually returned or was even aware of Blitzo’s feelings for him.

Imagine if Episode 7 consists of Blitzo getting closer and closer to Fizz? Rekindling their friendship and dredging up all the feelings Blitzo once had for his childhood friend and first love? Until finally Blitzo makes a big confession to Fizz. A confession that Fizz will invariably reject.

And despite Fizz letting him down as gently as possible, Blitzo’s very stunted and generally messed up emotional state means he does NOT take this well at all…

#helluva boss #helluva boss theory #helluva blitzo #helluva fizzarolli #helluva mammon #how blitzo and fizz reconciling can actually spiral into some MAJOR drama...

[niqosblog]

Why Do People Distrust Reboots of Cartoons?

An Analysis

Root of The Trust Issues

I feel like ever since Teen Titans Go, people have lost faith in reboots of classic shows. Especially since their only basis is "this is a show for little kids", and they expect it to be immature and plotless.

You can't just announce that you're making a TV show reboot of a classic with a more simplistic art style without expecting backlash.

Just saying "I like the [insert media] reboot!" Everyone is gonna be on your back and say that it's a bad lifeless reboot. But I believe that some are actually good. They have kept up similar themes and still progress with the modern world.

The Exception

If we're really getting into this topic, may I say that Voltron: Legendary Defender is a reboot that people loved to pieces. Even with its awful ending, people still loved it. Yet no one asked for it.

No one looked at the old Voltron and said "I wish there was a reboot".

Was the show good? YES!

It performed amazing during its run. It had a strong fan following to it as well.

Was it bar for bar, character for character accurate? NO!

Keith was supposed to end up with Allura, going so far as to marry her. Pidge was actually a clumsy dwarf boy that had a crush on Allura. Hunk was some buff white guy rather than a chubby Samoan dude.

Yet, did people complain? ALSO NO. And the only reason why, was the art style.

Simplistic Art Style

Then we get to things like the My Little Pony and Strawberry Shortcake Reboot. These are objectively good reboots as a stand alone, without a nostalgia bias.

They have representation, life lessons, friendship themes, basically everything that the original was. But the fact it's a 'reboot' is what throws people into hysteria.

Strawberry Shortcake was always a spunky girl who would always problem solve in a kind and caring way. Always true to her friends, loved making friends.

She is such a stereotypical good girl that the show even pokes fun at it. Making jokes that she's too trustworthy and friendly. And they keep this trend in the reboot. Yet people didn't watch it.

And you want to know why?

"it looks lifeless" "it lost its spark" "the designs are ugly"

Why This Argument Sucks

This isn't a real argument. Exhibit A would be Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT).

We can agree that TMNT has kept a consistent art style. Mostly consisting of the big eyes, similar body shapes, wide mouths... The only two thing differentiating them being the eye covers and weapons.

Now in the reboot, there are several differences.

Raphael - Stocky, beefy, wider, taller, snaggle tooth

Leonardo - skinner waist, broad shoulders, long head, slightly muscular arms, eye markings

Donatello - basically the same as Leo but he has skinner arms, and goggles

Michaelangelo - rounder, shorter, bigger eyes, more colors

Unlike the other adaptations, where they look like the same copy and paste character with a slight hue shift, they actually look different. But before it came out, there was a lot of backlash of the characters looking ugly.

That soon changed when clips started circling around that people gave it a shot. And guess what. They liked it! They called the characters charming and unique, and even got a huge fandom from shares on Tiktok and advertisements from the program airing the show.

Sure, people did complain about the simplicity. But they eventually came to enjoy it. So why can't people keep the same energy for other reboots?

Nostalgia

The biggest factor of all is nostalgia. I loved Strawberry Shortcake: Berry Bitty Adventures. And I dabbled in watching the 2003 version because I loved it when I was a kid. Yet, I still love the reboot.

Berry in the Big City isn't a bad reboot, people just don't want to give it a chance because of the nostalgia factor. They grew up with the 2003-2009 version and expect no changes, and when things did change they threw a fit.

I don't know how to tell you this, but this show was made for KIDS. Not teenagers looking for a fun watch, not adults looking for a taste of classic TV, but children.

Sure, there are some teens and adults who love this show because they might be a babysitter or an older sibling. Or maybe just someone who heard it was good and wanted to give it a watch.

But if your only reason for disliking a show is that "it's not my [insert character]" is showing that you're just scared of change. If I'm really being honest, BITBC shows more personality in their characters.

Back in Berry Bitty Adventures, they all felt like the same girl just with a different goal. Here, Strawberry is more hyperactive and passionate, Blueberry is going with the flow and airhead-ish, Orange is a competitive athlete, Lemon is an emotionally closed off inventor, Lime is a nerdy fashionista.

And they all look different.

I have confused Raspberry Torte and Strawberry in 2009 more times than I can count. Even characters like Cherry Jam and Blueberry who have a different color scheme, look similar when desaturated.

And if you feel hurt by the fact that I'm saying cons about a series you loved as a kid, then you're part of the problem.

I don't expect you to say that "oh, yeah, I can see that." but instead, admit that not everything you grew up with was perfect.

And if Strawberry Shortcake isn't enough proof that people glorify the original too much, may I remind you people continuously hate the Monster High reboot.

The original had racial stereotypes, outdated jokes, sexist characters, toxic relationships (that for some reason stayed together), misrepresentation of disorders, and way more.

The reboot actually tries to be sensitive to who might be watching their show. They made Asian coded characters not yellow, they properly represent disabilities, they don't make Abbey's foreign accent a joke, they have body diversity. And g1 is apparently still superior.

Another reminder is that when g1 tried to make progress with their first gay character, they back tracked it and made it subtext. There will always be a problem with g1 Monster High, the only people who ignore it are people who are scared of change.

Conclusion

Are you supposed to watch all reboots from now and forever into eternity. No. This is just a thing I noticed when goons glaze on a cartoon that they (probably) didn't even watch getting a reboot.

There are bad reboots out there, (I'm looking at you Velma..), but I feel like if you just watched a couple episodes you'd find them more enjoyable. The original doesn't disappear when you watch a reboot. In fact, most of the examples I've mentioned are free on YouTube.

#strawberry shortcake 2021 #strawberry shortcake #berry in the big city #berry bitty adventures #voltron #voltron: legendary defender #vld #keith kogane #pidge holt #katie holt #pidge gunderson #lemon meringue #orange blossom #blueberry muffin #lime chiffon #cherry jam #raspberry torte #raspberry tart #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rotmnt #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt raphael #tmnt leonardo #tmnt donatello #monster high #monster high 2022 #reboots #cartoons #long reads

[caelum-in-the-avatarverse]

Hello! I’m trying to collect seminal fanworks for different fandoms, and figured that it would be a good idea to ask you for any for atla since you said that you’ve been involved in writing fanfic for the show for so long. Basically, I’m hoping to find any fics that are widely popular within the fandom and/or have laid the groundwork for certain aspects of fanon. I’ve already got Embers by Vathara down for this since I’ve seen influence from it pop up pretty often, but I’m a bit new to the fic side of the fandom so I wanted to know which other ones were out there. Thank you!

Hmmm. Well, I can probably point you in the right direction, BUT there's a few things about me you'll want to take into account.

I have always had incredibly niche tastes. Even back in 2009 I was way more interested in reading about minor characters than I was reading about the main cast, and I preferred genfic over shipping. So the fics I read didn't tend to get popular, and the fics that did get popular were usually shipfic and thus I didn't read them and wouldn't be able to track their effects on the fandom. I also haven't regularly read ATLA fic in years; I write it, but I'm way more interested in my own OCs and worldbuilding and headcanon sandbox than most fic these days, so I'm not sure what the current trends are or where they came from. Most of the things I point you towards are going to be very old and possibly forgotten.

That said, I think your best bet is going to be figuring out where the hangout spaces were and who the major players were in old ATLA fandom and going from there. @loopy777 and @piandaoist may be able to help us out here too, especially since I only joined the fandom after the finale aired; they were around long before that.

So, where did the original ATLA fandom and its fic live? Well, for the fic, mostly on FanFiction.Net. You're lucky in this regard--I don't think there were any big independent fanfic archives for ATLA. Harry Potter was around at the same time and had several big fic sites, but HP was older than ATLA, so places like Sugar Quill and FictionAlley were founded around 2001. FFdotnet was founded in 1998, but back then it was pretty commonplace to build your own personal place on the internet. By the time ATLA aired, though, I think FFdotnet was becoming the go-to fic place. And old ATLA fandom never seemed to have much of a slash fandom; if it had that would've been more incentive to start up a separate slash-focused archive, since m/m would be especially vulnerable to purges. So as far as I know, no one felt a need to establish an ATLA-focused fic website, and if they did it never got very big. You'll probably have some good luck seeing what was popular if you just go to the FFdotnet ATLA section and sort by number of reviews and check the dates on what you find.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are going to go looking for this stuff, you need to keep in mind that you are looking at a past internet that is very different from what you might be used to today. For all that purity culture wankers like to complain, AO3 is a dream compared to the olden days. Now, you can see a fic's tags and warnings (or that the author chose NOT to warn) before you even open it. That was not possible or expected on many other fic archives. FFdotnet only gave you so many characters to write your fic summary, that was precious real estate. Sometimes people warned for things in author's notes, sometimes they did not. The culture and etiquette around warnings was different; in many fandoms back then, failing to warn for character death was seen as way more upsetting than failing to warn for rape. Check the rating, the summary, the author's notes--and then understand that you might still run into a completely random sex scene halfway through the fic. Was every fic like this? No, of course not. Most of them weren't. But you have to understand that this is an unavoidable risk. If you can't handle the idea of stumbling across some underage Zutara smut, this might not be the project for you.

Oh, and mind the citrus scale--lemons mean sex, limes mean the characters don't go as far as having sex.

And FYI, it's been ages since I've read anything I'm about to go over and I can't remember the details, so yes, this warning applies to anything I recommend here, too.

Other places to check...well, fandom lived on LiveJournal back then. I'm not sure if ATLA fandom was very affected by Strikethrough and Boldthrough; like I said, there didn't seem to be a lot of slash fans back then. But you could probably go trawling through old journals and communities and see if you find anything interesting... Oh, and back then all fanart would've been posted on DeviantArt, that was pretty much where fanart lived back then. LJ didn't have native image hosting, you had to use Photobucket if you wanted to post any images on there, and why do that when DeviantArt was RIGHT THERE for your fanart.

Ooooh, here you go, FanLore has some lists of ATLA fan spaces, lots of which are on LJ and DA!

There was also AvatarSpirit.Net, but they shut down ages ago. I archived a lot of the threads before it went, but I basically skipped the whole fanfic forum--everything in there was probably on FFdotnet, and no one really left comments on the fic threads, so it seemed pointless since I was pressed for time.

I think that pretty much covers the places. So what about the people?

Well, off the top of my head, I think one fan you might find useful is AvocadoLove (haha your names match). She wrote a lot of fic, but her most popular by far was Another Brother, which I believe was the original Zuko Joins The Water Tribe story, so that trope can be traced back to her. AvocadoLove also kept what might've been the fandom's most prestigious fic reclist, which you can still see on both her LiveJournal and her DreamWidth:

LJ 1 | LJ 2 ||| DW 1 | DW 2

There's a lot of popular fics on this list. Be warned, though, that a lot of them have disappeared, especially if they were posted on someone's LJ instead of on FFdotnet. A few years back I went down this list archiving everything I could, and the number of error pages I hit was saddening. It's possible some have been reposted to AO3 so you can go check there.

Going off this list...

Enslaved by sharkflip--This was a popular Zutara fic, Zuko's the one who got enslaved lol. Extremely different worldbuilding from canon, I gave it a read once and it was interesting.

Mai's Ramblings by @loopy777--Oh my GOD I forgot this existed but it's great. Unfortunately ASN is gone and I have no idea if they're posted anywhere else, LOOPY TELL US, but these were just hilariously stupid rambles by Mai on every ATLA ship imaginable. Did they have a big effect on fanon? Unsure. Were they beloved by the ASN community? YES.

Stormbenders by Fandomme--Another super-popular Zutara fic, people loved it, so it's possible it might've affected Zutara fanon?

Water Tribe by Rufftoon on NoSelfControl--Okay, so this is a long webcomic about "what if Zhao survived the Siege of the North, got amnesia, and the NWT begrudgingly took him in?" Very popular with Zhao fans back in the day. The really cool thing about this is that Rufftoon was actually an ATLA storyboard artist, so her artwork looks a LOT like the show. I believe she made Water Tribe as a sort of personal practice for long-term visual storytelling or something. She did lots of other ATLA art too, you should check her out.

Oh, speaking of webcomics...

Plight of the Freedom Fighters by SioUte and PFFbySIO--The first webcomic was a "how to make Jet survive" story, the second followed the Freedom Fighters after the war as adults. SioUte was the Freedom Fighters BNF back in the day.

And while I'm thinking of it, not a webcomic, but sylvacoer had this whole not-really-Zutara story going on that was literally Blue Spirit/Painted Lady.

*thinks* Look, when it comes right down to it, unless there's stuff going on in the shipping subfandoms that I'm not aware of, I don't think you're going to find anything that directly established as much fanon as Embers did. There were plenty of other super-popular fics, sure, but most of them focused on shipping, and worldbuilding wasn't quite as important. Embers put worldbuilding first and foremost, and therefore it was easier for the fandom to pull from as a whole.

Uhhh let's see what else...at this point I'm basically just throwing whatever I can remember being interesting at you, lol, idk how much of an effect any of this really had.

DJNS wrote a bunch of fic with interesting premises, some shippy, some not. The Zuko/Aang roleswap AU was pretty cool.

For me personally, the biggest influences on my writing were Dark Puck and Rebecca Hb, specifically their Dai Li fics. They had a circle of friends on LJ who put out some good stuff.

*thinks* Yeah, I think that's all I've got for now. Hope that gives you a starting point! I'd also recommend, as you trawl through FFdotnet, checking out the authors' favorited fics in their profiles, you could probably find more interesting stuff that way.

Idk, I'll add more later if I think of anything. But if you start with AvocadoLove, I think that's an excellent starting point.

#asks #fandom history #ancient fanfiction #fanfiction #fandom #caelum rambles

[rebeccalouisaferguson]

It’s a tough gig to be a female lead in the Mission Impossible franchise. The box office juggernaut has chugged along for two decades, delivering top-of-the line thrills and pusle-pounding heist sequences along the way, but with sequel after sequel, it’s become increasingly clear the iconic franchise has one sticking point it still isn’t quite sure how to figure out: its female characters. As far back as Emmanuelle Beart’s doe-eyed Claire in the first Mission Impossible, the majority of female characters Ethan Hunt encounters fit a very specific mold: capable in combat, drop-dead gorgeous (often donning slinky dresses or skimpy, skin-tight outfits), and in desperate need of saving, despite their supposed prowess in espionage.

It’s a frustrating blind spot in a series of films that otherwise represent some of the best action flicks of the 21st century, and Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One continues the unfortunate trend with its rather unceremonious dispatching of (until now) the series’ most prominent female character, Ilsa Faust, played by Rebecca Ferguson.

**This article contains major spoilers for Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One**

Prior to Ilsa’s introduction in Rogue Nation, the women of Mission: Impossible operated like a revolving door: They’d show up, look stunning, then either die tragically to give Ethan (Tom Cruise) further motivation, end up betraying him, or simply be cast aside by the franchise in favor of a newer, shinier, more scantily-clad female character for the next film. While the introduction of Ethan’s wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) certainly made for a refreshing reprieve from this trend, even she falls squarely into the “damsel in distress” category, and doesn’t get screen time unless she’s being used as leverage against Ethan. So, when Ilsa came on the scene in Rogue Nation it seemed like at long last, the Mission Impossible films had finally cracked the code on how to write female characters that might actually stick around for more than one movie.

And to the franchise’s credit, that’s exactly what Ilsa was—the series even went so far to explicitly bill her as “the female Ethan Hunt.” To paraphrase Ginger Rogers, Ilsa can do everything Ethan can do, but backwards, and in heels and that stunning, high-slitted opera dress. Like the women before her, she’s physically stunning and more than capable in combat, but unlike the rest, she’s given narrative agency. She grapples with her own allegiances, forced to either succumb to her fear of Solomon Lane or take the leap of trusting Ethan and his IMF team, and watching her open up and learn to trust others is a high point of Rogue Nation.

In Fallout, too, she’s given plenty to do. While the White Widow fills the arbitrary role of sexy femme fatale, Ilsa once again gets to be the mysterious wildcard. We the audience and the IMF team have grown to know and love her, but she’s still allowed to have her own crisis of faith as she (like Ethan in the early films) begins to try and re-learn what it’s like to trust your team after having been backstabbed.

Heading into Dead Reckoning, Ilsa was a shining beacon of what a well-written female character could look like in an otherwise extraordinarily male-dominated franchise: but if you’ve seen the latest Mission: Impossible, you already know it all comes crumbling down with a single bridge fight. Of course, the stakes were always going to be high with Dead Reckoning— it’s a sort of swan song for the McQuarrie/Cruise Mission: Impossible era, and though we’ve gotten confirmation the franchise will continue, there’s a distinct sense of gravity and finality engrained in the Dead Reckoning two-parter.

And, with a franchise as twist-filled as Mission: Impossible, a penultimate entry in a two-parter means the stakes have to be upped somehow. TLDR, there needed to be a major character death, and it had to be one that would hurt. Of course, the pool of characters whose deaths would leave a lasting impact on both Ethan and the audience is relatively slim: only Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames), and Ilsa have been around for more than one film, and killing off Julia (though undoubtedly devastating for Ethan) would lack punch, considering she’s already been killed off and resurrected earlier in the franchise.

So, it ends up being Ilsa who draws the unlucky “sacrificed so Ethan can be motivated into act three” card. After one desert action sequence and a ruminative moment with Ethan above the canals of Venice, she meets her demise at the hand of Esai Morales’ Gabriel, sacrificing herself in an attempt to save Hayley Atwell’s newly-introduced Grace. Don’t get me wrong—it’s not that Ilsa was killed off that I have an issue with, it’s the fact that the film did so so unceremoniously. Ilsa has been a franchise mainstay for three films now. She has the loyalty and affection of the entire IMF team, and a deep, sibling-like bond with Ethan that feels distinct and unique from the cut-and-dry romances he’s dabbled with in previous entries.

She’s a crucial part of what makes the recent Mission: Impossible entries so great, but Dead Reckoning doesn’t seem interested in honoring this or respecting the significance of her role in the franchise. Typically, if you’re killing off a major character, you’d spend every moment prior to their departure emphasizing just how key a part of the group they are—so that when the death does eventually come, we get maximum emotional impact for both the characters and the audience. But that’s the trouble with Ilsa’s departure in Dead Reckoning— the film is so interesting in setting up Grace as the next big mystery for Ethan to solve that Ilsa falls to the wayside, and her death ends up feeling like a tertiary motivation for Ethan as opposed to a major, earth-shattering revelation for the franchise.

Ilsa isn’t given any significant story of her own in Dead Reckoning, either—she’s after the same MacGuffin as Ethan, trying to protect the same woman (Grace) as Ethan, and ends up falling to the same villain Ethan has been trying to bring down—a villain she has virtually no personal connection to. Admittedly, if there was anyone Ilsa would lose her life trying to save, it’s gratifying that it’s Grace, another prominent female character. On the other side of that coin, though, it’s hard to shake the feeling that the early franchise revolving door is once again in operation—Ilsa’s body is barely cold before the film begins teeing Grace up as Ethan’s next big partner in crime.

Sure, she gets a few cool action set pieces, but in the grand scheme of the hustle and bustle of Dead Reckoning, Ilsa’s death (especially because it comes at such an odd, early point in the film) feels under-emphasized and like a grave betrayal of how powerful of a woman she was in life. Though she may have gone out fighting, at the end of the day, Ilsa still ends up another female casualty of the Mission: Impossible franchise killed so Ethan can be motivated into action—a reductive and lackluster ending for a one-of-a-kind ass-kicker.

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